Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic says he is "surprised and shocked" by a Hungarian plan to close the border with Serbia and erect a four-metre-high fence along their shared border to keep out illegal migrants.

Tony Abbott's dogged adherence to the idea of sovereignty not only strains our relationship with Indonesia, but is out of touch with today's world.

Rather than ramping up some imaginary "red line", perhaps we should sit down with our neighbour and formulate a regional solution to people smuggling.

Unfortunately, having antagonised our neighbour in the past, this latest furore over alleged payments to smugglers will probably just serve to put the relationship back where it all too often is - out in the cold.

France, Italy and Germany agreed to join forces to identify migrants arriving by sea and swiftly relocate them across the European Union or send them back to their home countries if their claims for asylum in Europe are rejected.

Seven years after hundreds of Bhutanese refugees started resettling in Adelaide, the population becomes the largest single migrant group to obtain homes through statutory corporation lender Homestart this financial year.

Australia is signatory to a number of international protocols that deal with people smuggling, so would officials fall foul of these if it's proven they paid smugglers to turn a boat back to Indonesia?